Health promotion at work: assessment of lifestyles of administrative assistants in a hospital

OBJECTIVE: To characterize the lifestyles of administrative assistants in a hospital, in order to define health promotion strategies in the workplace. METHOD: A quantitative, descriptive, cross-sectional study, carried out with administrative assistants (N = 167) of a medium-sized Portuguese hospital. The data were collected through a questionnaire (QEV&PS-SO) for sociodemographic characterization and analysis of health determinants related to lifestyles. RESULTS: It was observed that 54% of the sample did not practice physical exercise, 52% had four or fewer meals a day, 29% were smokers, 51% had insomnia, and 45% had no health surveillance, as well as 51.5% were overweight or obese and 63% had an increased or very increased risk of developing metabolic complications. No significant differences were identified in relation to weight, physical exercise or stress according to sex or age. CONCLUSION: The results support the need to develop intervention programs with strategies aimed at promoting healthy lifestyles among workers in health institutions, to be comprehensively integrated within the scope of occupational health.